TIG advice

Post by **katanaman** » Thu Nov 21, 2013 8:47 pm

Don't know if it is just a local factors or national but a place called breakways does co2 argon air and pure argon rent free. Rumour has it that euro car parts are about to start doing it as well. Ireland will obviously be a different story but it's getting more common so maybe soon if not already avaliable.

stevieturbo · Post by **stevieturbo** » Thu Nov 21, 2013 8:53 pm

Looks like that Hobbyweld place does list some over here.

What sizes are the actual bottles they offer ?

I have the big fat ones from BOC, about 4ft tall.

Tried the skinny versions, but they didnt last any time at all.

Post by **katanaman** » Thu Nov 21, 2013 9:21 pm

Mine is a 20L 200bar bottle. Lasts me ages but I don't weld all the time. Think it's was £140 first time and £80 a refill and no rental. BOC were about £110 a year rental alone!

stevieturbo · Post by **stevieturbo** » Thu Nov 21, 2013 9:39 pm

Ive the size Y for each, looking at the price list it looks like £91 per year ( +vat no doubt )

Pure argon is £62+ per fill and Argoshield £43.61+

Need a Argoshield refill now...although dont honestly ever remember them costing that little !

minorv8 · Post by **minorv8** » Fri Nov 22, 2013 5:45 am

I bought my first TIG welder about 15 years ago, a 150 Amp ESAB DC single phase one. Very reliable and I use it on most of my welding. Since I wanted to do some AL welding I bought a chinese AC/DC welder (also single-phase) from german Ebay.

It has worked flawlessly. The finish is not that classy but gets the job done. One thing you might want to consider: the chinese uses different setup for torch connection. Esab and any modern welders have the gas fed to the torch with a separare hose that connects to a dedicated nipple on the equipment. On my chinese unit the shielding gas is fed through the same port where the torch is connected. So, I can´t fit a better torch to the welding machine.

Also, the chinese equipment has a dial for amperage ranging from 1 to somewhere (no actual values), Esab unit has actually amperage values marked.

But, I paid less than 300 euros incl. P&P for the new chinese AC/DC TIG in the auction. Locally the cheapest equipment was around 2000 euros.

HF start is a nice feature , gives a more controlled start of arc.

About the brightness of the arc. I have an auto-darkening helmet and sometimes with tig it is a nuisance. There are cases when the helmet "thinks" that the arc is stopping and decides that you no longer need darkening

Here´s a nice guide for parameters:

http://www.millerwelds.com/pdf/gtawbook.pdf

Eliot · Post by **Eliot** » Fri Nov 22, 2013 9:38 am

Darkspeed wrote:Google Hobbyweld for contract free gas etc.

http://www.hobbyweld.co.uk/

there you go

Might give them a try when my bottle finally runs out....

Mike - I've got an account with Air Products, The bottles come from KG Smith in Hartwell (Who setup the account). Like steve, I have the 4ft tall 200bar bottles - i usually drive over and pick them up.
If you are doing alot of welding, you will get through a big bottle. You can rent either month to month or its a bit cheaper to pay for the year.
I've sort of got used to just paying the bill when it comes in now.

If i could just find an empty AP argon bottle - i could "return" my one and avoid the rental...

stevieturbo · Post by **stevieturbo** » Fri Nov 22, 2013 9:55 am

I gave them a call today.

Over here, seems a one off payment of £60 per bottle.

Hobbyweld 5 ( argoshield light ) a refill is £30
Pure Argon is £39

From what I gather, these are the waist height slim bottles. So do hold substantially less than the same height fat bottle I have now.

But I really dont weld that much now...and that yearly rental is annoying !

gelmonkey · Post by **gelmonkey** » Fri Nov 22, 2013 10:19 am

Minor
Thank you for that.
I now have some good reading to do.
With regard to rental and bottles the robbing b#''@tards down here in Plymouth charge me £130.00 a year for Argosheild in a Y bottle plus refill when needed.
Apparently Adams gas do non rental bottles but slightly higher gas prices to help guys like us.
Watched loads of TIG stuff on You tube yesterday and really want to get me some of that skill.

stevieturbo · Post by **stevieturbo** » Fri Nov 22, 2013 10:43 am

Hobbyweld prices are including VAT. Just got a bottle. Need to return BOC bottle now. Just hope this lasts a decent amount

stevieturbo · Post by **stevieturbo** » Fri Nov 22, 2013 8:58 pm

Dropped my bottle back to BOC...

He reckons my size Y contains about 7x Hobbyweld bottles.

The Hobbyweld is much smaller diameter and a few inches shorter. It's also only filled to 130bar, whereas BOC full to 230bar.

Much smaller than I expected really. even if I use 4-5 bottles per year, I'm still paying less overall.